MP3 players and singing room machinery (i.e., karaoke systems), which are kinds of entertainment machines, can provide accompaniment and words of songs requested by users without limitations in time and space. The use of these MP3 players and karaoke systems has been abruptly increased.
In a sound module 5 for a conventional MP3 player or a karaoke system, serial MIDI data 6 is outputted from a control unit 11 of a main system and then is provided to an internal serial input terminal 7 of a dedicated sound ASIC 17. In order to decompress the data in the dedicated sound ASIC 17 and a musical-instrument data ROM 16, however, a separate SDRAM 18 should be used, so that the cost of the MP3 player and the karaoke system is increased and the musical-instrument data stored in the ROM 16 cannot be upgraded.
The karaoke system as shown in FIG. 1 briefly includes a main device 10 for inputting/outputting control commands and data, a display device 20, electrically connected to the main device 10, for displaying image information and words information, a microphone 30 for receiving a user's voice and a loudspeaker 40 for outputting the voice inputted through the microphone 30 and music provided from the main device 10.
As shown in FIG. 2, the main device 10 has a controller 11 for processing various kinds of control commands. The controller 11 is provided with an input/output terminal unit for electrically connecting to external devices (e.g., microphone, loudspeaker, display device, and others). Also, the controller 11 is connected to a manipulation unit 12 for inputting the various kinds of control commands to the controller 11.
The controller 11 is connected to an image storage unit 13 for storing images to be outputted to the display device 20, and a words storage unit 14 for storing words to be outputted to the display device 20. The dedicated sound ASIC 17 that stores music to be outputted through the loudspeaker 40 is connected to an SDRAM 18 and a codec 19 so as to decompress the musical-instrument data stored in the ROM 16.
If a user selects the number of his/her desired song through the manipulation unit 12 in a state that the main device 10 is connected to the microphone 30, the display device 20, and the loudspeaker 40 through the input/output terminal unit provided therein, information stored in the image storage unit 13, the words storage unit 14, and the music storage unit 15 is outputted through the display device 20 and the loudspeaker 40.
In this case, the user's voice is inputted to the microphone 30, and then is outputted through the loudspeaker 40, so that the user can listen to the music and the voice outputted through the loudspeaker 40.
However, the main device 10 for the karaoke system as described above should be additionally provided with the image storage unit 13, the words storage unit 14, and the music storage unit 15, and the controller 11 should include a ROM 9 for a system OS and an SDRAM 8 for the system. In addition, it is not possible to upgrade the image storage unit 13 and the music storage unit 15, and the size of the main device 10 is increased due to the electric connection of the image storage unit 13 and the music storage unit 15 to the controller 11.
As the size of the main device 10 is increased, it is inconvenient for a user to handle, carry, and install the karaoke system.
In particular, since music corresponding to respective songs (i.e., music performed by various musical instruments) is typically stored in the music storage unit 15, the size of the music storage unit 15 is increased, and a large-capacity music storage unit 15 is required in order to store a large number of tunes.